Car sharing disaster or just car disaster?

Snow - we've got lots of it right now. It seems like every morning at the moment I'm waking to the sound of a neighbour's snow blower in the distance (aren't snow blowers meant for heavy duty snow dumps, and not just a few centimetres or so overnight?).

I was last on my bike a couple of days before it started to snow properly in Ottawa early last week (we've pretty much had "instant winter"), and my husband was last on his bike the day of the "big snow". We had a Vrtucar booked that morning for a last minute medical appointment for our youngest on the other side of the city. We knew we didn't want to bank on public transit, so booking a car seemed the way to go, even though we knew it would mean driving in some pretty crummy conditions.

It turned out to be a car share disaster, though it really was just a car disaster. Either the satellite signal or the lock mechanism was not working and the car would not open in spite of repeated attempts (poor husband tried for the better part of 20 minutes before packing it in). So, not a broken down car, just a car that would not give us entry. I'm philosophical about it now - cars break down, especially in winter, and sh*t happens, it's no one's fault. But at the time, I was getting a bit frantic about missing the opportunity to see a specialist who'd had a last minute cancellation and could fit us in.

In the end, I had to call Vrtucar. The second vehicle that is nearest to us was available, but only for a couple of hours (we needed it for the whole morning). We arranged to book that car for one hour, which would allow us to drive to a station that was further away (ie not walking distance) to collect another vehicle that was available for the time slot required. We then needed to return the first car, of course, as you can't do double bookings with Vrtucar and we didn't need two cars. The timing was too tight, however, so at the second station we quickly transferred booster seat, child and mother into the new car and off we went, leaving husband to return the first car and continue home without us. I wasn't thrilled that he wouldn't be able to join us for the appointment, but I was grimly pleased that we were on the road and on our way.

We were 25 minutes late, but we still had 95 minutes of the appointment when we arrived, so the visit wasn't wasted. It wasn't ideal and I definitely hated arriving flustered, distracted and with the clock ticking, but it could have been much worse. Much worse indeed; we did not get involved in an accident, and I reminded myself of that fact.

Somewhat out of habit my husband took his bike with him when he went to return the car later; churning home through mountains of snow was great fun (and exhausting), he asserted, but later he sheepishly wondered if he should have taken his skis! It was one of those rare days when he could have enjoyed an inner city ski of several kilometres on open roads.

It's all just another reminder that it's so much more challenging getting around in the snow and that sometimes, things just don't turn out as planned. The ability to take the long view, a good sense of humour and flexibility are good assets in the wintertime, no matter your circumstances. And in my view it's best to leave cars out of it if/when you can, but if you do need to involve a car, aren't the perks of having access to a larger fleet kind of cool?